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What Gentlemen Do

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What Gentlemen Do

By: Todd Babiak
Narrated by: Joshua Browne
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Things haven't been going well for Waylon Gans. His hometown of Walleye is known to be a shithole, he's barely employed, and the sublime Derby Froese wants to keep him in the friendzone. And that was before he fell in with a right-wing influencer and accidentally started a riot and people on the internet began to hate him. Now Derby can't even look at him, his best friend Solomon feels betrayed, and somehow his life has got even worse.

With nothing to lose, he enrols in an ancient philosophy class and discovers Stoicism. What would Marcus Aurelius do? he asks himself. And: what is my path of virtue? And also: how can I get Derby to be impressed with me?

And while the answers might not change everything, they could make a whole lot of things better in Walleye. Not just for Waylon, but for everyone around him.

©2026 Todd Babiak. Published in Australia by The Text Publishing Company (P)2026 Penguin Random House Canada Limited
Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Small Town & Rural
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Critics' reviews

'Funny, furious and quietly devastating.' (Richard Florida, author of The New Urban Crisis)
'Few writers can bring together humour, heart and hope more thoughtfully and powerfully than Todd Babiak. Brilliantly written, this novel tears you down and then lifts you up. Masterful.' (Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour)
'Timely and witty ... it is a light novel about a dark subject, and Babiak pulls it off with gentlemanly aplomb.' (Winnipeg Free Press)
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